The child was injured last Nov. 18. Deputies arrived at the home about 3 a.m. to investigate a medical call regarding a toddler who was not breathing, the sheriff's office says.

The child's 22-year-old mother was standing in the driveway and carrying the child wrapped in a blanket.

The child, Christopher Eli Davis, did not have a pulse and was pronounced dead an hour earlier.

The cause of death was a single gunshot to the head, initiating an investigation by the sheriff's office Major Crimes Unit.

The post-mortem investigation and evidence collected at the scene revealed the injury was consistent with the child shooting himself. The semi-automatic weapon which caused the death of the child belonged to the father, who told deputies he thought he had secured the weapon in a case, out of the boy's reach.

<p><em>CHARLOTTE COUNTY</em> - The father of a 3-year-old boy who fatally shot himself with an unsecured handgun was charged with culpable negligence Thursday, sheriff's deputies say. </p><p>The father, 24-year-old Christopher C. Davis, of Port Charlotte, turned himself in.</p><p>The child was injured last Nov. 18. Deputies arrived at the home about 3 a.m. to investigate a medical call regarding a toddler who was not breathing, the sheriff's office says.</p><p>The child's 22-year-old mother was standing in the driveway and carrying the child wrapped in a blanket.</p><p>The child, Christopher Eli Davis, did not have a pulse and was pronounced dead an hour earlier.</p><p>The cause of death was a single gunshot to the head, initiating an investigation by the sheriff's office Major Crimes Unit.</p><p>The post-mortem investigation and evidence collected at the scene revealed the injury was consistent with the child shooting himself. The semi-automatic weapon which caused the death of the child belonged to the father, who told deputies he thought he had secured the weapon in a case, out of the boy's reach.</p><p>Davis was booked into the jail and released without bail.</p>